17th Southeastern Nationals

When setting out to fly from my home on the West Coast to the East Coast for the Goodguys show in North Carolina, few goals needed to be set. First was to meet as many like-minded people as possible. When I say like-minded, I mean gearheads, aka garage tinkers, like you and me. Second, I look for the trucks that those guys built because they usually fit the bill for CLASSIC TRUCKS. Third, to have as much fun as possible with all of the above. This year marked the 17th annual Goodguys Southeastern nationals, and according to the locals and the vendors, it was sure to be a good one.

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I started off the trip a few days early, driving into a huge lightning storm with a tornado watch, but as luck would have it the weather cleared up the day before the event. (I'm glad it cleared because in California we are only prepared for earthquakes, fires, and riots.) Friday was amazing. It was like I was back home in sunny San Diego, California-slight breeze and 75 degrees with tons of cool trucks to choose from. It was difficult to select the CT Finest Five picks, because in Charlotte there were so many nice pickups I could have picked the Finest 50.

When asked how I choose the Finest Five at a Goodguys event, my answer was simple: The truck has to have that "wow factor" when you first see it and then wow you again when you look closer. My "wow factor", as I call it, is probably slightly different from Riz's, but I know neither of us take into consideration how much money was spent. What's important to us is how much pride was put into it.

By mid Friday the autocross was running at full force with full-on race vehicles all the way to a stock stake bed Dodge. It was also really fun to take a ride in Greg from RideTech's truck. He brought his personal truck to the track to show off what their product will do on the autocross course. (Just an inside tip, it's not about luck or being an editor of a magazine that I'm able to ride in one of the many vendor's vehicles, all you have to do is ask and wait your turn.) Detroit Speed, RideTech, BFGoodrich are just a few of the vendors who were giving away rides around the track.

Friday came and went like a really good dream, and I headed back over to the autocross track to see what was going on Saturday morning. As it turns out, Kevin Bapst had taken the lead for the truck category and Greg was a smitten slower. Bapst held onto the time for the weekend and claimed the overall prize pack for the truck class. Check out the CT website under "Community" for a ridealong video with Greg.

As much as I hate to leave the track, there was so much stuff to see, like the swap meet area or the pumpkin car everyone was talking about. Many of the vendors were holding seminars for tuning and suspension, as well as displaying the vast amounts of new products available for purchase. If you're into sweets, the show happened to fall under Halloween, so there was plenty of candy floating around. By Sunday I was exhausted, but that's a good thing because everyone I met at the show was great and all the walking helped me sleep for the long flight home. By the way, when I got home it was raining cats and dogs. Go figure, I left the sunshine in Charlotte.